Clean Water Act Is `Failure,' Environmental Group Says

June 22, 1993|By MARK DI VINCENZO Daily Press

NORFOLK — With the notoriously polluted Elizabeth River behind her, a member of a national environmental group on Monday called the federal Clean Water Act ``a dismal failure'' and announced a lobbying effort to overhaul it.

The law, which sought to end toxic releases into waterways by 1985, is ineffective, said Jill Crouch of the U.S. Public Information Research Group, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental and consumer group.

Half of the nation's lakes and 30 percent of its rivers ``are non-swimmable and non-fishable,'' Crouch said, quoting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

PIRG also released a report Monday that shows that 243 million pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the nation's waterways in 1991, the last year for which data are available. Of that, 2.2 million was released in Virginia.

But ``we don't have a good picture of what the toxic stream looks like in this country,'' said Carolyn Hartmann, a PIRG lawyer.

There are a few good reasons for this, Hartmann said.

Federal facilities and companies that operate power plants, incinerators, mines and oil and gas rigs don't have to report their toxic releases to the EPA. Those that do may report less than they release. And the EPA asks to know about only 300 or so of the 70,000 chemicals in use in the nation.

Industries that must report what they release may stop using one of the 300 chemicals on EPA's list and begin using a chemical not on the list.

So PIRG and several other environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense Fund, have rallied behind the yet-to-be-introduced Clean Water Enforcement Act and the Community Right to Know More Act.

The enforcement legislation, expected to be introduced as soon as this week by two New Jersey congressmen, would set mandatory fines for the nation's worst water polluters and require industries to post warning signs along the waterways they pollute.

The right-to-know legislation, also expected to be introduced soon, would give the EPA the authority to require more industries to report their toxic releases, add about 500 toxics to the list of 300 that now must be reported and require the worst water polluters to develop pollution-prevention plans.

PIRG's Crouch asked that residents express their opinions about the legislation to U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a member of the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works, where the legislation will be heard. Warner's Washington office number is (202) 224-2023.

AMOUNT DUMPED

The pounds of toxic chemical dumped into Virginia's waterways and discharged to treatment plants have fallen significantly since 1988, based on reports filed by the companies with the Environmental Protection Agency. Critics are skeptical whether those reports tell the full story.